Removing black ink stain from varnished wood?

[Linnea Lahlum]

I gave a friend a set of antique oak chairs to sell. He was going to tighten up the wobbles before selling them at an antique mall where he has a booth.

I had tried without success to sell them myself for some time on both Craig’s List and at an antique consignment store. They are really beautiful chairs so I didn’t want to just donate them. They do not /did not need refinishing, just were a little wobbly.

He was using them before he got around to figuring out how to correct the wobbles. Somehow one got a bad stain on the seat. He didn’t see how. It looks like ink to me.

They were refinished when I bought them ~ 15 years ago, but I don’t know what the finish is. I have refinished a fair bit of furniture, but not these.

Any idea how to remove this? He tried mineral spirits and it did nothing. He doesn’t know anything about refinishing, I would have to supply what ever they needed. I have an assortment of various solvents around plus wood bleach.

As it stands now, this set is now a dead loss. Any suggestions for me? Thanks.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd first try to clean the stain off the finish, while leaving the finish. I'd try denatured alcohol, Goof-Off, and lacquer thinner, in that order. Depending on what the finish is, those solvents might attack the finish, so I'd test them on a less-visible spot first. If those solvents don't work, I'd probably go to a paint stripper to remove the varnish, hoping that the stain comes off with the varnish. If the stain has penetrated through the varnish into the wood underneath, you'll have to sand it out. Then you re-varnish.

[Doug Hepler]

Oak? Black ink? Your friend can't explain how ink got on the seat? Maybe it's iron stain. You said that the chairs were recently re-finished. With what? If it's a film finish, and if the film finish is intact, ink would wipe right off with a rag, and iron stain could not reach the wood. Therefore I will guess that the film finish is not intact. First, have a close look at the area. Does the film finish look intact? Try wiping with lemon juice. If that does not work, try oxalic acid. If that does not work you will have to sand it off and refinish the area. Chemical removers are verytricky to use on a part of a piece. Scraping and sanding might be best if you need to refinish.

Doug